Beyond All Reason
by willowhaven116
Summary: Paige is at her last day of her senior year. She knows exactly where she is going and she even knows what she wants to do despite her father forcing her to go into a different route. When she meets a girl at a senior year party (who lives 12 hours away and will be going to school at the other side of the country)- will she continue in the footsteps her father set out for her?


Tick. Tick. Tick.

The clock on the wall was simply a dreadful reminder of the time that hadn't passed. It was the very last period of the very last day of senior year and all I could think about was exiting those four walls for the very last time. I stared at my recently illuminated phone which I kept hidden underneath the table – 2:35pm. Five minutes left till I could walk – no run – no skip – no dance - out that heavy yet fake wooden door for the final time, get in my dark crimson Kia Sportage and drive off with the top down, music up and me screaming as loud as my lungs could possibly allow. The image in my head was so tangible and all that was standing in my way was those five minutes the clock would not allow to pass.

The teacher was talking about how she loved having all of us in class and how she wishes us all luck in the next coming years – how it was in the next few months we would all be deciding where we wanted to go and how we would get there. Truth was I really did not care. I knew where I was going – Arizona State University. I had received a full-ride scholarship to Arizona State for swimming and they had promised me a starting position as a freshman. Arizona was on the other side of the world – well country, but that didn't matter. I was thankful to be getting out of my father's hold – even though he wasn't happy about me moving so far away. He had had a say in every move of my life for the past 18 years and I couldn't wait to finally be able to make my own decisions. I had received many other offers from various colleges but none offered me a starting position like ASU and that was my sole playing card for reasoning why I was moving so far away. Truth was, I just wanted to be as far away from him as humanly possible without exiting the country. Though if I could get a swimming scholarship to Australia or China…. I very well may have taken it.

I could just picture it – warmth almost all year round, dorm rooms with other swimmers, late night pizza runs, being out until 2am…. Well, okay, midnight at the latest. Dawn comes early! Basically, I would be able to come and go as I please. No set time limits, no 50 questions of where I was and who I was with. I might even have a slight opportunity to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life instead of having someone tell me what I was going to do. I had to major in Business Management but what I'd really love to major in was English Literature. I had still no idea what I wanted to do with it; all I knew is that I loved literature. Teach, perhaps. Teach literature in under-privileged schools. Show kids that literature isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I'd shown that to a few of the younger students I had tutored over the years and it thrilled me when they could make a connection.

I saw a movie called Freedom Writers a long time ago - I was probably a sophomore at the time and I immediately became inspired by the way the teacher stepped up and learned about the kids' situations and stressors. She took initiative and engrossed the kids into the Diary of Anne Frank – something that was comparable to what they were going through in their own lives. She changed their life course through literature and helped make those children into better people – more upstanding people. In all reality, most of those kids probably survived and realized they had something to live for because of how she took an interest in them. What better way to spend the next 50 years? If she could do it, why couldn't I? I could. I knew I could. But no… I was stuck going into Business Management with a minor in Sustainability because it was the "safe bet". My father didn't care to hear my dreams or ambitions. He only cared of what would make me successful – and being the valediction I was expected to do great things. I just wish I could do the 'great things' that actually meant something to me…instead of the great things that meant something to him.

I rolled my eyes at my own head babble – until I caught the professor's gaze and then I sunk lower into my chair. I shifted my stare to the ticking clock on the eggshell colored stone wall and perked back up in my seat. One minute left. I watched the seconds hand intently as it ticked slowly around each number – shifting my gaze back to the teacher occasionally. I made sure I had all of my stuff together – wallet, sun glasses, keys, phone…all on my body. I hadn't taken a bag to class the whole day because there was absolutely no point since the lockers had to be cleaned out by second period and I hadn't been in the pool that morning. Even though post season practice and exhibitions had ended weeks prior, I still found myself in the pool nearly every morning during the week. In the midst of all the busyness in my head, it was the sole location that allowed me to silence the chatter that resided in my mind. A thousand voices, a thousand opinions and only one me. Yet, not one voice, not one opinion was my own.

The bell rang loudly throughout the building and so commenced the quickest shuffle of feet, bags and bodies that I had ever been present for. The crowds of students flooded the hallways as I fled the scene with the rest of my senior class. We all filed quickly and haphazardly through the double steel doors and down the stairs to the parking lot hey– most of us nearly running down the stairs. Shouts and hollers of freedom cut through the air eliciting laughter and retaliating hoots.

"What's up McCullers?!" I heard the loud bellowing voice behind me as two forceful hands slammed down on my shoulders and were removed just as quickly – only to be replaced by an arm playfully wrapping around my shoulders and tugging me inwards for a brief moment.

I laughed and shrugged the taller blonde off by pushing at her side lightly which elicited a roaring giggle from her cherry stained lips.

"Did Mrs. McElroy talk for the entire hour for your class too?" a second voice questioned from my other wide.

I turned my head to first acknowledge the taller blonde beside me and then the short-blacked haired, petite girl on my other side and as usual I smiled widely at my best friends, Tina and Sam. Sam was the second voice I heard and she was now in front of me walking or perhaps skipping backwards facing Tina and myself as we all neared my Kia in the middle of the crowded parking lot. Tina was one of the cheerleaders at school – in fact, she was the head cheerleader. We hated each other for the first two years of high school ... well, actually we hated each other up till the junior year – we had been in classes together since Kindergarten. I'm not even sure what brought us together but I remember she was walking down Main Street completely trashed and had a large, hairy man following her as she stumbled along her way – trying to keep her feet on the sidewalk. I was driving my mom's car at the time and I saw Tina trying to fend off the burly man's advances and I offered to give her a ride. I don't even know what prompted me to stop, but I couldn't imagine just passing her or anyone else by that was in that situation. I ended up forcing the inebriated girl into the Ford Taurus and I took her back to my place before helping clean her up and getting her to sleep. Ever since, we've been nearly inseparable. Sam and I, on the other hand, have been friends since we were in diapers. She's actually my cousin – though you couldn't tell by looking at us. I was much taller and much more built than Sam. She had really bright blue eyes while I had dark brown that sometimes turned green in bright, direct sunlight. She had very short, razored black hair that looked like a pixie cut and my hair was a dark to bright auburn color depending on the time of year and was relatively long falling just below my collar bone. Not to mention that compared to my 5'7" and 148lbs, she looked like a 5'1", 102lb doll that I could snap in half with two fingers.

I rolled my eyes and nodded at Sam's rhetorical question as we reached the Kia – both of them already helping me take the top down snap by snap. I had a special style Kia Sportage – it was a convertible. Okay, so in reality, I wanted a Jeep Wrangler but the Sportage was all I could afford and I saved up all my money from working as a lifeguard one summer and tutoring to pay it off completely. I didn't care that it was not a Jeep. It was my baby and anyone who had a problem with it could kiss my ass. My baby had a soft top –which I always put down when I was driving. I didn't trust the top being down at school for the entire day because there are just some bat shit crazy people at that school and god forbid anyone attempted to touch Suzie – my Kia's nickname was Suzie – and I would not be a very happy person. She had some issues – sure, but she was fairly reliable and I looked hot in that driver's seat.

We rolled back the soft top effectively and clambered into the small SUV. Sam fought Tina for the front seat and won and as Tina decided to use the tire as a step stool for getting into the backseat, Sam was already searching for a song on the radio. We cranked the music as I began driving out of the parking lot and onto the open road. Twelve school years had come and gone. Twelve years of assessment, being told what we could and couldn't do and now – we were three 18 year old girls just realized from an institutionalized prison – or so it felt.


End file.
